1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system memory, and more particularly to a system and method for secure information handling system flash memory access.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As businesses and individuals increasingly rely on information handling systems, secure and economical storage of information presents a continuing challenge. Malicious attacks often seek confidential information stored on information handling systems. In other instances, malicious attacks seek to disable networks so that legitimate users cannot access information. Hackers have grown adept at attacking networks through a variety of techniques at all levels of the network, including client and server information handling systems. Some forms of malicious attacks seek not only to obtain confidential information, but also to maintain a presence on client and/or server information handling systems for continuing attacks. To prevent malicious attacks, use a variety of techniques, such as firewalls and antivirus applications. Hackers often see protective measures meant to prevent malicious attacks as challenges to overcome. The result is a continuing cat-and-mouse game in which network administrators move to prevent foreseeable malicious attacks while hackers seek to exploit the unforeseen.
Server information handling systems typically have access to information stored at a variety of locations that is vulnerable to attack. One example of memory that is vulnerable to attack is flash memory used to manage or control one or more server information handling systems. For example, server information handling systems often include a management processor, such as a baseboard management controller or chassis management controller, which provides “out-of-band” access to the server information, such as remote power control and remotely directed upgrades. The management controller typically includes flash memory that stores instructions for managing the information handling system, such as instructions to perform provisioning. For instance, flash memory of the management controller is divided into a variety of partitions with each partition serving a particular task and having data related to that task. Each partition of the flash memory can be exposed to the operating system of the server information handling system as a writable USB hard disk drive or USB key by the management controller. The management controller faces many of the same security issues of any normal storage device in an operating system environment, such as writes and reads by multiple users, virus or other malicious software or rogue programs that induce multiple write erases. Such threats at a management controller level can lead to data loss or denial of service attacks since data corruption can, for instance, cause provisioning not to function.